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Me and My Shadow - Memoirs of a Cancer Survivor is a brutally honest account of one teenager's struggle to understand and deal with the most feared diagnosis known to society: cancer. At 18 years of age, John Walker Pattison was thrust onto a roller coaster ride of emotional turbulence - his innocence cruelly stripped from him; his fate woven into the tapestry of life. After years of failed chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments that ravaged his physical frame and almost destroyed his psychological stability - his parents were told that he would not survive. Yet, today, he is one of the…mehr

Produktbeschreibung
Me and My Shadow - Memoirs of a Cancer Survivor is a brutally honest account of one teenager's struggle to understand and deal with the most feared diagnosis known to society: cancer. At 18 years of age, John Walker Pattison was thrust onto a roller coaster ride of emotional turbulence - his innocence cruelly stripped from him; his fate woven into the tapestry of life. After years of failed chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments that ravaged his physical frame and almost destroyed his psychological stability - his parents were told that he would not survive. Yet, today, he is one of the longest surviving cancer patients in the UK. Eight years after his unexpected recovery, the news that all parents fear, his daughter is diagnosed with terminal leukaemia. Yet like her father, she too would defy the odds and go on to become an international swimmer. Pattison turned his life full circle and became a cancer nurse specialist at the same hospital that made his diagnosis decades earlier. He prescribes chemotherapy and cares for individuals with the same cancers experienced by both him and his daughter. Throughout his journey, Pattison's inspirations were the space rock legends, Hawkwind. He would get to play on stage with his heroes at the Donnington Festival in 2007. More significantly, he found solace throughout his cancer journey in the history and spirituality of the Lakota Sioux Nation. In 2018, he would spend time on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation with the indigenous people of South Dakota. The same people who, unknowingly, supported him through life's greatest challenge: cancer.
Autorenporträt
John Walker Pattison was born in the wonderful seaside town of South Shields 64 years ago. He is a long-suffering but dedicated Newcastle United supporter; however, there is little doubt that the crucial hinge in John's life is his beautiful wife, June, and his family. "Nothing is more important than family," says John. He recently retired from his post as a senior clinical nurse specialist in haematology at his local hospital, a place that established his cancer diagnosis in 1975; he is humbled to be one of the longest living cancer survivors in the UK at 46 years post diagnosis. His interests include Native American photography and exploring parts of America unseen by tourists.